Atelier Meruru Is The Third Game With Rorona And The Last Game In Arland

Dengeki PlayStation has a blowout on Atelier Meruru, a sequel to Atelier Totori and Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland. Meruru (which could also be Meryl or Merle) is a fifteen year old alchemist apprentice and Totori, now 19, is her teacher. Atelier Meruru takes place in the small country of Earls, which is just outside of Arland.

Rorona returns in this game, but she appears as a little girl who really wants to eat pie. Since Rorona was Totori’s mentor in Atelier Totori, Rorona should be even older in Atelier Meruru. Part of the mystery is how or why is Rorona a girl since Dengeki didn’t explain why.

Atelier Meruru has a new system where players help her cultivate the world. It’s possible to turn this empty space into a giant tower. Players can also customize their alchemy creations by making small changes to a formula. Gust completely changed the battle system in Atelier Meruru. The game displays the turn order on the side of the screen with character icons lined up vertically. Atelier Meruru uses a cost turn system, which sounds like a fancy way of saying attacks change the turn order.

Gust says Atelier Meruru will be the end of the Arland storyline for now and there will be a conclusion to the series. That’s not counting downloadable content, which Gust plans to release.

Atelier Meruru is slated for release on June 23. A limited edition with another crystal paperweight and Meruru Nendoroid will go on sale for 10,290 yen ($127) while a standalone game costs 7,140 yen ($88).

Mmm, loli Rorona might be Rorona’s daughter maybe?! Unless they already confirmed that it /is/ Rorona…But I can’t wait for this game! I always love Gust’s games. But man, dat LE costs an arm an a leg… I was planning to get this one’s too, since I missed Rorona and Totori’s since I opted to just wait for the English releases for those…

Edit: DERP, the screenshot clearly says the speaker is Rorona… But I guess that still doesn’t rule out the possibility that it’s Rorona’s daughter. I think?

Being Rorona’s daughter would be a plausible explanation. I also think it’s great, whether she’s Rorona or her daughter, that she has an affinity for pie. I like pie, therefore I like her! Logic! I’ll stop being weird now.

It would actually be a very Rorona thing for her to somehow screw up and name her daughter Rorona, or her daughter be kind of weird and just call herself Rorona. I’d go with the daughter idea too, since Rorona’s probably into her 30’s.

I’m gunning for ‘Rorona tried to make a time travel machine powered by pie and didn’t get it quite working’ myself.

Call it a hunch (or me cheating, one of the two) but I bet Rorona thought Astrid went through time, and she tried to follow, and consequently instead of manipulating time, she manipulated time on her body, and consequently needs pie to power the effects to get back to her normal age.

You heard it here first! Okay, I’m kidding on the prediction.

… Sad part is, given what Rorona has done (In Totori she tries- oh right, never mind, spoilers) it actually wouldn’t rate as the most absent minded thing she’s actually done, and it’s actually sort of plausible.

And if you’re wondering, it’s not actually the first time that a main line Atelier used time travel accidents. Violet (or was it Judie? I NEVER remember correctly) as a game is based around it. (Ingrid is really, really scary then)

But then again, the underlying note is that Astrid propels the world, and the sad part is that she does things a lot just because she can. Even though Rorona’s the star, I’d argue that Astrid’s actually the driving force.

I’d bet the server I’m building right now that Astrid’s at fault in Meruru personally. Somehow, she always is…

“Gust says Atelier Meruru will be the end of the Arland storyline for now and there will be a conclusion to the series. That’s not counting downloadable content, which Gust plans to release.”

Could you elaborate on this? Are they talking about closing out the Atelier franchise as a whole, at least for some time?

That wouldn’t be surprising, really, although I’d be a bit sad if they put the series to bed without one last friggin’ Salburg/Gramnad game to wrap up some of the dangling plot bits involved there. The world totally needs to find out what happened to Marie, Elie and crew in the end.

Anyway, as I said elsewhere, not too pleased with that first trailer they showed off that focused on Meruru’s *butt* for a moment. Not what this franchise is about, thanks. Still, interested to see where they take this, since it sounds like Atelier Annie writ large.

Ereek

I don’t have the scan, but from what it sounds like to me they’re just closing the Arland trilogy. They’re going to a new area/style with the next games.

If you want to be really pedantic, technically Salburg had FIVE titles and Annie and Lise are just a pair, not three, so there isn’t a pattern – I think they make as many as they can think can work story wise, I guess. :P

I loved MK2. I must admit to having never played MK1, but that’s mostly because I played Cross Edge first (really mostly because I am a Disgaea and Darkstalkers fan). Then from there, it made me want to check out the other games that crossed over, so I picked up Ar Tonelico, got into that series, picked up Mana Khemia 2, hope to one day play part 1, and really hope a 3 comes along one day.

Makes me wonder what the adults were doing (or rather not doing) to be letting these young people mess around with Alchemy.

“Boundaires? Nah let’s just assume they will get bored with messing around with dangerous stuff and end up settiling down for a boring 9 to 5 job. The world ending up being in danger? Nahhhh not gonna happen”

@SpaceDrake “Anyway, as I said elsewhere, not too pleased with that first trailer they showed off that focused on Meruru’s *butt* for a moment. Not what this franchise is about, thanks.”

anyone who plays it purely for the alchemy and combat is either INsane or INdenial XD

Ereek

I play Atelier for the management aspects. I don’t see the problem with that.
The fanservice does not appeal to me and he’s right, it has never been a huge part of the series until recently. It was more subtle, and there wasn’t as much emphasis on it. Even play something as new as Atelier Lina and you’ll see the difference in how much fanservice there is.

So where does it leave me then? I have about as much interest in girls butts as the next girl. :P

For most part, it’s mostly the creation. But then again, I’ve always liked making stuff, and having items form a major part of a game is fun, even if you could literally level countries with the right flame setup.

raymk

Then what is this franchise about then? If its not about the fanservice and not about the alchemy or combat then is it for the story? Something which most if not all rpg should be about in a trilogy? I noticed that all 3 has fan service in them you just weren’t looking hard enough cause it was there lol. To me even with that stuff the series still isn’t about that kind of fan service,I like stuff like that but for this game it doesn’t bother me.

Guest

They like that stuff (little girls butts)

Wackoramaco87

I’m a bit sad this series end, but at least they didn’t completely shut out any hope for the future! On the other hand, I really hope to see this come over eventually, I heard that Rorona did pretty well, and Totori will probably make it over as well.

The fangirl in me compels me to add this- can’t wait to see how some of the characters *coughSTERKISKELcough* have aged! =D

All I do know is I finally get a new project – This however requires me to finally various upgrades to my systems (Which will take somewhere in the vicinity of a couple of weeks to facilitate the move in systems. R&D sucks sometimes.)

I’m sure you’ll figure out what that means.

But then again, it’d be more interesting than the support I’m doing right now for other people… Some people simply can’t catch a break.

holyPaladin

I finished Rorona and need Totori now NISA!

And of course Meruru in the future~

Soma

Aw, I wish that North America would get limited editions that come with Nendoroid figures. ; A ;

In any case, sounds like they’re making some interesting changes to the battle system. The turn order thing sounds like it might be somewhat similar to Radiant Historia …

Zero_Destiny

Oh Chibi Rorona is cute. :) Bummer though I wanted to see her all grown-up. Well maybe there’s an ending for that. :) Alright NISA let’s keep the games coming on work on Atelier Totori now. :) Thank you. You guys are great. :D